I am so excited. I'm pretty sure I'll finish this story by the middle of September. I'm gonna try to finish earlier. (the muse can be very fickle)

Obvious some dialogue from the movie...don't own anything...so on and so on.

Enjoy...

Pamela Landy watched as David Webb/Jason Bourne disappeared into the place that had sacrificed so many good people in an effort to gain results without bureaucracy. She wondered if he'd keep fighting on once he found out the truth about the program and Nicky but more importantly, himself.

A screech of tires drew her attention and she knew that Vosen had figured out her non-code. She whirled around and ran in after Jason. She saw him enter the elevator but she continued past it and to the stairwell.

She forced an office door open and slammed it shut behind her. Once at the phone she punched in the emergency code. "Hello. This is Pamela Landy. I have to send a classified document."

Landy wrote the fax number down and unpacked the bag. Inside were all the documents that related to Treadstone's beginnings as well as its eventual upgrade to Blackbriar. Jason hadn't been lying; it was everything they needed to bring it crashing down.

She opened the folders and found name after name of targets that had been taken out while either involved in Treadstone or after they had helped set up Blackbriar. She found personnel files and every single dirty secret that pertained to the programs and their running by their equally dirty bosses from Conklin up to Ezra Kramer.

She scanned further and found the various write ups by Nicky indicating the many problems each asset suffered, from the mild antisocial behavior of The Professor to the severe psychological breaks of two others that had to be reprogrammed and even the headaches of the seemingly perfect Bourne.

It also included extensive files on Jason Bourne and the behavioral training he'd gone through at the hands of Albert Hirsch, Neal Daniels and his care under Nicky Parsons.

She put aside Daniel Zorn and Nicky's file along with one sheet of Jason's. She shoved them under her coat and typed in the fax number. She hurriedly shoved each and every remaining page until the door slammed open and Noah Vosen walked in. Landy turned to face him safe in the knowledge that his misdeeds had been sent to the higher ups regardless of the gun in his hand.

Vosen looked around her and rushed to the fax machine. The last page went through and he pulled it disbelieving from the tray. He stared at her too shocked to actually say anything. Pamela had no such problem. "You better get yourself a good lawyer."

Meanwhile Jason maneuvered the corridors of the hospital with ease. The scenes from his mind played across his vision giving him the feeling of someone else controlling his body. He passed doors with keypads that he should've had no way of remembering but by some strange twist of fate had stayed stored in his brain when everything else had faded.

He continued this way for some time until he reached the gray doors that had popped into his mind when he'd seen the picture of Daniels and the then unknown Hirsch.

'A republic lives on the knife's edge.' Jason blindly walked along past the open door and through a long corridor with the hallucination of Daniels and some other men. 'When we are finished with you, you will no longer be David Webb.' Jason looked behind him for the voice but it was still in his mind.

At the end of the hall was a set of doors that had also recently played in his dreams and like his dreams he found himself unable to get in though he already knew what lay beyond it. He knew that this where he'd been broken and that this was the place that he'd first really met Nicolette.

'You know why we're treating you like this?' They asked and threw the bag over his head and dunked him in icy water. A young blonde woman gave him a towel and told him it would be okay. She was here to help him. 'I'm here to help you. Let me help you Jason.'

'Who is Jason? My name is David…David Webb.' The woman shook her head sadly and the towel was snatched from her hand and he was dragged back into the tub, back into the hands of cruel men beating the resistance out of him and away from her comfort. Back to no sleep and bright lights and little food.

Hours later she once more kneeled in front of him. 'Let me help you Jason,' she repeated.

He shouted his name was David and again went the process. It lasted days and weeks. Beating, dunking, starving, her hands and the warm towel, her strong jasmine perfume and always that sweet voice saying, 'let me help you, Jason.'

He shook his head and stepped out of the past. 'The blonde she looked familiar. She looked…'

Jason wanted to believe it was real but he'd been having so many recalls since he entered this place that part of him wasn't sure what was really happening and were past experiences. "I wouldn't be here if I didn't want to talk," Hirsch said as if reading his mind.

"I spent three years running." 'Floating in the ocean, on the boat. Through Paris and Germany then India and now here, always floating without any control of my life.'

"Three years trying to find out who I am." 'The deposit box and the passports in it, the assets that wanted to kill me. Marie and the journal. Piecing together the fragments provided by the sight of Nicky while being framed in Germany. Marie's death and the explosion in Tangiers that had nearly taken my life, that had nearly taken Nicky's.'

"You've still not got it all back, have you? Still not filled in the pieces." Hirsch asked but the question was rhetorical. It was obvious he didn't know all of it. Jason would not have saved Nicky Parsons if he knew the extent of her involvement.

"It was always you." Jason said grabbing the man and shoving him to the door that wouldn't open in his mind or in reality. He didn't want to be psychoanalyzed. He just wanted the truth, all of it unvarnished and without holes.

He checked Hirsch for weapons but the man feebly interrupted. "I'm unarmed, Jason."

"Why me? Why did you pick me?"

"You really don't remember do you? We didn't pick you. You picked us. You volunteered. Right here even after you were warned."

'Dr. Hirsch, may I have a moment with you?' Nicky asked.

'What's it about?' he said.

'It's about Captain Webb…I rather talk in private.' She said not looking at the soldier that was glaring in her direction. He made her uneasy.

'By all means Ms. Parsons. Feel free to give Captain Webb your reservations about him being involved in our little program. He seems rather interested.'

Nicky shifted her papers and stared determinedly at the angry young captain. 'I don't believe Captain Webb has the right…attitude for this program. He is too self assured.'

'Hear that David. She thinks you are cocky.'

'I didn't say that but he will not follow orders easily. He thinks he will but I can tell you that he will try to circumvent them. It's in his record, great soldier but a bit of a loose cannon.'

'You don't know shit about me.' He growled from his chair.

'I don't have to.' She said primly and turned to Dr. Hirsch. 'He is too Alpha male for this group. If we have other candidates with this personality, it will force us to have a hierarchy within the assets.'

'And that's bad?' Daniels said from behind them.

'They'll need a handler to keep them adjusted.' She said, "One will have to be dominant and I don't think that is a good idea unless there is an Alpha Female to balance-"

'You have yourself a job, Ms. Parsons.' Hirsch said and dismissed her.

'I'm not taking orders from that little…' he snapped.

'I will not be…' she protested.

'You helped create this program and that includes the running of it and all that comes with it for it to be a successful endeavor.' Hirsch told Nicky. 'And you will submit to the program and all its parameters. Is that understood? Those are the rules,' he said to David.

'I'll commit to the program and all its rules,' both responded.

The light above the door turned on as Hirsch put in the last number and it clicked open. He walked in and waited on the other side. Jason glanced in and the images from his head bled into the room.

'Good morning, Captain.'

"You came in here. You didn't even blink, Jason. You just handed me these." Hirsch held out the swinging dog tags to him.

Jason took the tags and turned them over.

WEBB DAVID

829 63 1204

O NEG

CATHOLIC

'Has everything been explained to you?'

'Yes, sir.'

"You said you wanted to serve."

'Your missions will save American lives.'

'I understand, sir.'

"You said I'd be saving American lives."

"You were."

"I was killing for you. For them," he says putting the gun against Hirsch's head.

"You knew exactly what it meant for you if you chose to stay."

'When we are finished with you, you will no longer be David Webb.'

'I'll be whoever you need me to be sir.'

"You can't outrun what you did, Jason. You made yourself into who you are. Eventually you're gonna have to face the fact, you chose right here to become Jason Bourne."

'You haven't slept for a long time.'

'Jason, let me help you.' She said again. He grabbed her this time and she squealed but Hirsch and Daniels did nothing and he looked at them and back to her.

'You can't help me. You can't even help yourself. Do you think that if I agree to do everything they tell me in this room and prove I'll be exactly what they want, that later on if I ask to have you that they will deny me? Do you think you'll have a choice?'

She shook her head and he was oddly proud that she wasn't scared. 'I know they'll offer me to you at some point. I'm the…' she swallowed, 'the incentive."

He yanked her so close to him that her feet were barely on the floor. 'Who told you that?"

'Nobody, its not hard to figure out. Why else would I be in charge of your conditioning? It was my paper on psychological triggers that helped build this program. I have to give something to be on the ground floor.'

'You agreed?'

'I had no choice. I'm was already too far in and now so are you. If you don't make a decision, they will kill you.' She whispered and this time he saw fear but it wasn't of him but of the men in the room with them.

'Why do you care?' he asked.

'I can protect you and you can protect me.'

'Have you made a decision? This can't go on. You have to decide.' Hirsh said watching the play between them. Nicky was then pulled from his grasp and escorted out of the room but he knew that she was no doubt watching from behind the glass.

'Who is he?' he asked instead.

'We've been through that.' Hirsch said but his gaze went to the mirror.

'What did he do?' David asked but he was beyond the man sitting on the chair. He was thinking about himself and the blonde, the one that was tied to the program as tightly as he was.

'It doesn't matter.'

Hirsch approached him, 'you came to us. You volunteered. You said you'd do whatever it takes to save American lives. You're not a liar, are you or too weak to see this through?'

Hirsch was so close that he actually heard the sharp inhale of air that Nicky made into the com. 'This is it. Let go of David Webb. Really give yourself to this program.' Hirsch continued knowing very well that Nicky was audible to David.

'They'll kill you,' she had said. 'They'll kill you too' he thought and he didn't want her to die. Without one more thought of doubt, he turned and put three shots into the unknown man.

'You're no longer David Webb. From now on, you'll be known as Jason Bourne. Welcome to the program.' Hirsch said and Daniels took the hood off the now dead man.

'Michael.' He heard her cry when they wheeled the man out.

She touched Michael's face delicately but the mask of professionalism dropped over her face as Hirsch handed her David's dog tags. 'We begin tomorrow with him and the Professor and Nicky?'

'Sir?'

'He's Bourne now. David is gone and so are any feelings that went with him, understood.'

'Yes sir.'

'Bourne, same goes for you. Physical relationships are understandable but no attachments. None, those are the rules.' Hirsch said.

'What attachment, sir?'

'Good man.'

"Do you remember now?"

"I remember."

'We can't. What if they catch us? You remember what Hirsch said and Conklin will be furious.' She said while he lifted her legs around his waist and he pressed into her.

'They'll never know." He said undoing her blouse and letting the cool night air caress her skin.

'You're watched more than the others. You're Conklin's favorite.' She said but it was so hard to reason with his mouth attached to her pulse point and her nails digging into his lower back to keep him anchored to her for a little longer.

'I protect you and you protect me. That was the deal.' He replied and she nodded too caught up in the motion of his body flowing into hers in a darkened alley several steps from the safe house.

'Jason or David. I don't care who you are. I love you, every part of you,' she cried and he kissed her quiet.

"I remember everything. I'm no longer Jason Bourne."

"So now you're going to kill me."

"No. You don't deserve the star they'd give you on the wall at Langley."

Before he could decide what to do with Hirsch, banging and gunfire interrupted and Jason was forced to find an escape route. He jumped through the nearest window and luckily rolled onto a low rooftop. He dropped down the fire escape and crossed over another roof but there was nothing but streets beneath him.

Jason doubled back to the same floor, kicked in a door and went back into the building. He walked slowly putting more and more pressure on his foot as he went. The jump had not been calculated and he could tell he'd twisted his ankle at the very least.

He hobbled along the maintenance part of the building looking behind him every few paces to make sure that the asset he'd allowed to live hadn't found him yet. He climbed up a few more floors and he hit a series of catwalks.

Jason limped his way along them hoping to reach another roof to cross and get out that way. He reached the end of the building and found a long drop into the East River and no other places to jump. He paced back and forth contemplating how to find Nicky now that he'd sent her away and he was trapped ten stories up.

He pulled the scrap of paper Landy had given him; this might be his only chance to read it. Once in the water it would be beyond legible.

Jared Chronis

Athens

He reread the name but didn't recognize it. Who was Jared Chronis? Another asset perhaps or maybe an ally that Landy had set up? Could he be a way to find Nicky I wasn't aware of?' He put the paper back in his pocket and looked down the building seeing if there was a way to scale down a few stories before having to plunge into the river.

The sound of a gun cocking brought him up short and Jason Bourne turned slowly to meet his killer.

"Why didn't you take the shot?" Paz asked.

"Do you even know why you're supposed to kill me?"

Paz said nothing but Jason was once just like him. He'd looked at the Professor the same way, Paz was looking at him now, just before he killed him.

"Look at us. Look at what they make you give," Jason quoted and he had never forgotten the look of relief on the Professor's face when Jason acknowledged his words and in the end even though he was on the ground and knowing he was going to die, the man had been set free.

Jason wanted to have that freedom even if Paz pulled the trigger.

The man hesitated, like he'd done with Nicky and in that moment of hesitation Jason understood why he had hesitated to kill her. It wasn't just because he remembered her a bit or because she knew something about him, it was because she knew what he had given because she had given it too.

Unlike the other assets who were stripped of their will, Nicky had kept hers much like Jason had. Only she could understand the utter brutality of their jobs and not be totally broken and that had made him feel less alone. It had made him feel less empty and more like a person than a weapon.

The door opened and both men knew that their time for answers was over. More of Vosen's men were coming and one of them was going to have to make a move or both would perish.

Jason looked back at the asset, who's name was Paz. He turned his back on the man and hoped that he wouldn't receive a bullet for his show of trust. He stepped closer to the ledge and gazed at the water below. It was dark and very likely would kill him but what choice did he have.

One last moment of hesitation and Jason ran full speed to the ledge and over and into the water. He didn't see Paz lower his weapon or Noah Vosen raise his. He hit the air and felt the shooting pain of a bullet hitting his skull and knew no more.

Washington, D.C. – Emergency Cabinet Meeting

"Good morning, Senators. If I may, I'd like to begin by making a statement for the record. The file indicates that Ezra Kramer authorized six illegal…" Pamela Landy went on and on until that evening and again the next day until Ezra and Noah and Albert were all picked up and Nicky and Jason had both disappeared.

Captain David Webb aka Jason Bourne aka former Treadstone operative was floating in darkness. It was cool and serene and it was everything that his life had not been in the last moments of it.

Nicky and Marie swam beside him. Marie's long blonde locks were short and dark again and she held Jason's left hand. Nicky's short dark locks faded to blonde and lengthened as she gripped his other hand. Marie bobbed along side him then reached over and held Nicky's hand and the blonde squeezed it.

Marie let go of Jason's and guided it to Nicky's. She then kissed Jason lightly and disappeared beneath the waves and Jason knew she was truly gone. Marie was finally at peace. He looked to Nicky but she wasn't bobbing gently, she was thrashing and swallowing water as she screamed his name.

An unseen force pried his hands from hers and fully submerged her into the depths. She struggled to raise her head above water but the force was too much for her petite frame. He reached for her again and her long blonde hair floated up to him, caressing his face.

He called her name and dove into the blackness. Her silhouette beckoned and he followed until the bright of her hair was all he could see. He pushed towards her with the last of his strength and surfaced.

Jason opened his eyes and met a full bright moon. He'd been dying and Nicky and Marie had saved him. He gingerly kicked and immediately felt the adrenaline from his fall shoot through him and he swam towards the shore farthest from the building where he'd gotten all his history back.

He spotted a dock and pulled himself onto it. He rested for a few moments then tiredly climbed to his feet. He couldn't stay here, Vosen and his people no doubt would be looking for his body and even with his training he was too injured to fight on.

He walked slowly and purposely through the city. He bumped a few people and took what little cash they had and continued on his way. He got on the train platform and was met by none other than Tom Cronin. "Need a ride?"

"Can I trust you?" Jason asked though he followed the man off the platform and to a row of dark cars parked nearby. The door of one them opened and inside was Pamela Landy waiting with a duffel bag that was probably full of a few passports and a couple thousand dollars in several different currencies and hopefully at least one change of clothes.

"Still careful I see."

Jason climbed in without an answer and they sped out of the city.

"Here drink these." Pamela handed him a small white bottle and the whole car lurched or at least it seemed that way until he realized that he was the only one that had pitched off his seat.

"Jason, Jason! Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a…" at that moment another headache caught him and he barely made it to hold on to the seat. An image came unbidden to his mind and he froze in shock.

It was Nicky and she wearing the same expression that he'd seen on her face when they'd been standing in front of the bus and he'd told her that it got easier. He saw his own hands reach for her and she went into his arms.

He pulled her closer and felt the bump between them.

"It gets easier."

"What does?" she asked.

"Running. You'll have me and I'll protect you both."

"You promise."

He hugged her in response.

Jason recovered from the vision and hoisted himself back onto the seat. Tom asked him if he was ok and he muttered that he was. 'She was pregnant. Nicky was pregnant and it was mine.'

Jason searched his mind for any fragments, for any information on the whereabouts of his child, any hint that she had told him that there had been a child, his and Nicky's.

'It was difficult for me, with you. You really don't remember anything?'

'No.'

That was why Nicky had not said a word. He'd been so mad at her for lying to him and still so hurt about Marie's death that he hadn't bothered to really wonder what had happened between them. He had pushed her away and she'd let him go.

It was why she allowed him to send her away because she knew that he'd eventually remember. He'd eventually want to know every detail and more importantly he'd want to know where their child was, a child that Nicky clearly didn't have.

His gripped his head in pain at the force of the recollections but one lone phrase made it out of his tortured mouth. "What happened to our baby?"

Pamela Landy and Tom Cronin looked at each other and she pulled out two folders. He read Daniel Zorn and Nicky Parsons on the covers and she just shrugged.

Jason threw Daniel's to the ground and carefully went through Nicky's. It gave her birth date and other vitals such as where she'd grown up and gone to school. It mentioned her parent's death at age 20 and when she had started the program, a few months later.

He went through her medical records and found out she was allergic to almonds. He kept reading and stopped short at the brief entry. Nicollette Parsons, miscarriage at seventh months. Baby boy – suspected father, Daniel Zorn.

Cafe Panorama - Tangiers

"The president convened an emergency cabinet meeting today to discuss the growing scandal over an alleged government assassination program, code-named Blackbriar." Nicky looked up from her book instantly forgetting about the cheese and tomato melt and whether or not it would ease the sudden and ridiculous appetite that had plagued her for the last week.

She sat up straighter as her old life came blaring through the TV. "CIA Director Ezra Kramer is under criminal investigation for authorizing the program, which in several cases may have even targeted US citizens." Nicky asked for her sandwich to go and resumed her reading as she waited for the check.

"Two agency officials have already been arrested. Dr. Albert Hirsch, the alleged mastermind of the Blackbriar program and CIA Deputy Director Noah Vosen, the program's operational chief." Nicky snorted happy to know that the smug bastards had finally been caught.

"Meanwhile, mystery surrounds the fate of David Webb," Nicky again stopped her reading and stared at the television. "Also known as Jason Bourne, the source behind the exposure of the Blackbriar program. It's been reported that Webb was shot and fell…" Nicky stifled a gasp but didn't take her eyes off the screen, willing it to tell her what happened to Jason. "…from a Manhattan rooftop into the East River ten stories below. However, after a three day search, Webb's body has yet to be found."

Nicky smirked and asked for her sandwich to go. She'd been in Tangiers for two days now and any more time could bring out some of the old program's hidden assets. Just because the program was defunct didn't mean they couldn't still take her out.

She changed her hair color again lightening it so it was closer to brown than black though she had kept the length as it suited her nicely and made blending much easier.

Germany – Alexanderpratz Station

It been weeks since the national coverage had run about the failed Treadstone project but Nicky had been traveling steadily to keep herself from getting too comfortable. She'd taken Jason's advice to heart and not stayed anywhere longer than a few days.

If anything felt weird she was gone in a flash. Today she had felt nostalgic and had decided to visit Alexanderplatz. It had good and bad memories and now with her life so nomadic, memories were the only permanent things she had left.

She wandered the underground and recalled that this was not only where Jason had held her hostage but it was also the place where she'd broken Danny's heart. He'd been so great and gone out of his way to be romantic but whatever had been between before the program had disappeared the moment she'd become Jason's handler.

He'd been so sad and angry and it was the last time they'd been truly close. He'd pressed a key into her hand and left her there to catch the train alone. She pulled the key from her pocket and twisted into the lock. The door opened smoothly and she reached in and pulled out a bag no larger than a handbag.

Nicky slipped it over her shoulder and left Alexanderplatz for the last time. She stood in the bus anxiously patting the purse until her stop came into view. She walked straight to her apartment and checked the surrounding area from behind a curtain.

She turned on the single lamp and placed the contents of the purse onto the only surface in the middle of the under furnished room. Inside was a key; clearly a deposit box one, a book with a single code inside and below the number the name of a bank in Athens, Greece. She pressed on the leather cover of the book felt a poof of bunched material.

She slit the edge of the front page expertly but found nothing. She ran her hand over the book's spine. There was something definitely there so she pushed the book flat and slowly slid her knife in and wiggled it until the spine was separated from the rest of the book.

A tiny rolled up paper came out and Nicky uncurled it to reveal a wallet size picture.

Nicky gathered the rest of the items and stuffed them back into the bag without a second glance. She wiped down the apartment and left for the first available plane to Athens.

She arrived and prepared to settle for a few days knowing it be dangerous to do so but she wanted to be sure. She had to be sure of the information, she wouldn't be able to bare it if she was wrong.

She finished her lunch and heard that the elusive Jason Bourne had not been seen since his fall into the river almost three months ago. She smiled at the good news and decided to walk to her destination.

The day was warm with the sun shinning down on the inhabitants as Nicky headed to the beach and sat with an umbrella and her book open to avoid any suspicion.

In the distance she saw a little boy running and chasing after a little blonde looked so innocent and sweet and Nicky felt tears prick at her eye at the thought of her own little boy running so carefree.

The little boy ran in front of her and she used the opportunity to sneak a look at a woman a few feet away, underneath an umbrella and applying sunblock to a chubby three year-old intent on eating the sand all around him.

Nicky looked at the picture in her hand and compared it. It was he, the three year-old playing not more than ten feet away was her and Jason's son, Jared Chronis. She'd finally found him but as Nicky went to get up and maybe introduce herself to hold him just once, a silver car pulled up to the edge of the beach.

A man stepped out and everything felt wrong about him.

She knew the type from the way he carried himself. This wasn't an asset but he was definitely dangerous and as the man neared their secluded little area, Nicky ran to the mother and knocked her and the baby over just in time to avoid the silenced gunshots that hit the sand instead.

Surprised that he'd been spotted Nicky took advantage and ripped the umbrella from the sand and shoved the pointed end into his stomach as hard as she could. He blocked it somewhat but she still managed to draw blood and distract him long enough to knock him out with the tazer she kept on her at all times.

She swiftly picked up her baby and dragged up the confused and terrified woman. They took off running before the man came around and Nicky explained in stilted Greek that she and her whole family were in danger. The woman dazed but coherent tried to take the baby back to their home but Nicky urged her to go on and retrieve her husband and other family.

She pressed her wallet into the woman's hands to satisfy her that she'd stay put. The woman probably wavered by the sincerity of the person who saved her life agreed and left Nicky at the edge of the property looking out for the mysterious man that had ambushed them.

She walked a little ways from the house and bounced her son to calm him. She was still surprised by how easily she'd been able to find him given how well Danny had been able to protect him not just from Conklin and Abbott but also from Vosen without her knowledge.

The baby smiled at her and she could clearly see the resemblance to Jason's handsome features.

'How will I explain the baby to him? What excuse can I give him for not telling him that night at the hotel when we made love? What if he still doesn't remember?' Nicky didn't think she could handle that empty look of his again, not without it ripping out what was left of her heart.

"How will I tell your father about you?"

"That depends on the father. Me or Danny?"

Nicky nearly tripped by how quick her feet turned to meet the voice that she'd recognize anywhere. The voice that had been haunting her every since she'd departed on that bus from Tangiers and he hadn't given her a backwards glance, "how did you find me?"

"I will always find you. Who's the father?" he asked his face so serious only his lips moved.

"You are. Why would you-" She didn't get to finish her sentence as the house behind them exploded.

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